CBS’s Season Premiere/Season Finale Lineup Wins Wednesday Night

CBS wrapped up one major reality franchise’s summer season and launched another one’s fall season Wednesday night, winning the prime-time broadcast ratings in the process, based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that the 90-minute opener of "Survivor," while down 19% from the premiere a year ago, had enough draw to eke out the title of top broadcast show of the night, delivering a 2.6 average in viewers 18-49. The finale of "Big Brother," also 90 minutes, wasn’t far behind, averaging a 2.4 — 4% off from the previous season finale.

Both programs had plenty of reality competition on other broadcast nets. NBC’s two-hour "America’s Got Talent" continued to flex its ratings muscle, rising 14% from last week to a 2.5 average in 18-49. NBC also aired another installment of "The Million Second Quiz," settling for a 1.2 average — 8% below last week’s Wednesday number.

Fox’s two-hour "X Factor" remained competitive as well, matching the 2.2 average delivered by last week’s premiere in adults 18-49.

ABC went with an all-repeat lineup in Wednesday prime and finished well off the pace of its big four rivals.

The numbers for prime time overall show CBS on top with a 2.5 average in the 18-49 demo, followed by Fox (2.2 average), NBC (2.0), Univision (1.3) and ABC (1.0). NBC moves to the top in total viewers with an average of 9.2 million, followed by CBS (8.1 million), Fox (6.6 million), ABC (3.5 million) and Univision (3.4 million).